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It’s been a while since I donated my time and I decided that I should. There have been many different ideas rattling round but I decided I wanted to do something soon. I submitted to Wanderlust in the City for Auckland and thankfully, they accepted me. I’ll be helping out at the festival, and this to me is just awesome. I’ve been super psyched about Wanderlust hitting our shores and have thought about how much I want to go. When I started to think about volunteering, I didn’t immediately think to do it for Wanderlust, because I wanted to attend, and then I realised, wouldn’t it be great to attend by giving? I decided to change what I think I wanted my Wanderlust experience to be, and I want to help the organisers put on a great event, and I want to positively impact attendees too.

I definitely need to think harder about my time this year and how I can make time to volunteer some more this year.

I’m now considering how else I can help out, starting with my hair. I think I might chop and donate it before the end of this year. Lastly, I will continue to donate to the organisations that my husband and I have already nominated.

I haven’t written a word since my attempt at 30 posts in 30 days. I took a break in the beginning because I felt like I needed one. And then the break just continued to get longer and longer and before I knew it, it was March, and here I am. Part of it was silly too. The longer I didn’t write the worse I felt about returning.

But here’s what I realised. It doesn’t matter. I’m only beginning this journey and for part of this journey I was meant to take a break, re-evaluate and then come to terms with what I’m more than likely capable of doing. So here I am.

there are a few new things I want to try out for 2014: (in no particular order)

Circus arts classes – I tried a couple of classes out this year and enjoyed them. I would like to dedicate at least one solid term to circus arts

Trampoline sessions – I’ve wanted to try out some freestyle trampoline sessions for a few years and keep on putting it off. So i figured next year, I should just make it happen

Sew something – all i know is how to sew a button onto my clothes, and it’s not even that tidy. I’d like to learn how to make something, anything.

Woodwork – I am crap at anything that is at all design like and I would like to try and make something practical. So I’d like to explore options to either teach myself or take a class and learn how to make something out of wood.

Learn a language with my husband. The default would be to do french, because I know elementary school french and I love the language. Biggest flaw in this plan, is that I haven’t even talked about it with my husband yet.

random ideas that have just popped up:

learn to sing

learn to draw

I have to refer back to this post by the end of January and come up with a plan to make this happen and see how realistic it is to take on so many new things. Maybe 2014 is about exploring the options and map out how to make it happen.

Last week on the lululemon blog, they posted the #nohumbug challenge. I didn’t know about it until Friday.

I really liked the idea of the list, and I’ll likely do the list, but with my own twist. I’m not interested in all the challenges, and I’m not interested in doing them as they’ve prescribed. I’d rather do the ones I like, and change the ones that don’t suit me to something a bit more practical, like I probably won’t have an eggnog cocktail, but I’m likely to have a candy cane cocktail.

So far, I’ve spread the #nohumbug challenge, found a new way to get sweaty and secretly topped up someone’s parking.

I haven’t been home to Canada since May 2011, however my parents, my sister, her husband and my nephew along with a number of my international friends all came to NZ in Feb 2012. So it didn’t feel like a big deal at the time.

I had every intention of coming home again in August 2013, but life being what it is had other plans, and my husband’s brother got married in August, inevitably delaying my flight home (best reason ever though, both my brother-in-law and his wife are wonderful people and I’m so pleased to have shared their special day with them).

So it’s no surprise that since August, I’ve been itching to get home to Canada, but when? I could have booked flights for November, after my husband’s final university exams, but winter in Toronto is a little bit harsh, so that takes out all the winter months, and the earliest to go is March, which is pretty iffy in terms of weather. To add another element of life in the mix, my husband turns 30 at the end of March, and I’m pretty sure we discussed Las Vegas birthday plans at some point.

We recently booked our flights home, and I was so happy, excited, that I could’ve cried. I can’t wait, we leave just in time for the husband’s birthday, and we’ll celebrate in Las Vegas as planned, then we head to Vancouver for a few days, before we’re lucky enough to get to home, Toronto.

I miss my family so much and I do make the most of all the modern ways to stay in touch, but sometimes when my husband asks what I’d like to do this weekend, my answer is simple but impossible. I want to hang out at my sister’s house on a Friday night having chats with her and her husband and playing with my niece (who I have yet to meet) and my nephew. On the Saturday I want to tag along with my parents and all the chores they’re doing and just help out and make them dinner.

Those are two things I’m looking forward to the most, when we visit home.

Normally on Thursdays I go to spin class and I go to a hot power yoga class. I went to bed early last night, because I was exhausted and my joints were and still are not feeling so good. I didn’t feel like going to my classes today. I woke up this morning, feeling rested and ready to take on the new day. I’ve packed my gym bag and lunchtime yoga looks like it’s on the horizon still, however, I’m still feeling rather spent.

It’s days like this that I find difficult. I don’t know if I’m talking myself out of attending classes or if I’m trying to listen to what my body needs, which may be some rest.

I had a good friend tell me a couple of years ago, that if I’m feeling tired or starting to feel like I’m under the weather I should go to yoga. It may seem counterintuitive, but this piece of advice usually works. So I made the decision to attend the yoga class.

It worked, by the time we were going through our flow, I was feeling far more energized than I had since the day before and I was appreciating where I was today, not yesterday and not where I want to be in my practice tomorrow or in a month, but appreciating that I was having a day where I was tired and my joints were reminding me they’re arthritic, but I can still practice yoga.

I made the decision after class to give spin a miss today. Normally I have a lot of joint swelling in my knees directly after class for about 10-15 minutes and I was concerned that it could have been longer, considering how my body was feeling.

I ran in late to my lunch time yoga class, in a bit of a tizzy, I set up my mat and ran to the change rooms, and whizzed back in and joined the class in downward dog.

However, I was surprised and delighted when I received an unexpected gift from a fellow classmate, that I had never met, Andrea. She was kind enough to give me a new headband from Lululemon. She works at the Lululemon Britomart store and when she saw me rushing around the yoga studio, she thought I could do with an unexpected delight in my hectic day. Funniest part of the story, I thought someone had accidentally left the headband on my mat, so I handed in to the studio for lost property. I was told after I returned from the change rooms what really happened. So I waited to say thank you and introduce myself to Andrea.

Fantastic brand initiative by Lululemon and their team and a nice small gesture, that I won’t soon forget either.

my new awesome headband. Thanks for the surpise and delight in the middle of my day!